Monday, October 9, 2017

Icarus Films Teams With The KimStim Collection On Dec. 5 For DVD Release Of Japanese Filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour

Icarus Films will be
teaming with The KimStim Collection on Dec. 5 for the domestic double-disc DVD
debut of Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour, an intense tale
of life, love and careers in Kobe, Japan as experienced by Akari, Jun, Fumi and
Sakurako— four women in their late 30s
— who have reached a crossroads in their collective lives which will test their
friendships.

Hamaguchi’s film is of
Japanese culture; of Japanese theatre.The superficial nature of a discussion about one’s job or Jun’s (played
by Rira Kawamura) forthcoming divorce, are but openings to broader issues that reflect
issues, not only in the lives of Hamaguchi’s protagonists, but of modern
Japanese society in general.

Happy Hour is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

In other release news
from Icarus Films this week, documentary filmmaker Tancrède Ramonet’s
three-part French television mini-series, No Gods, No Masters, will be
available in the domestic marketplace on Nov. 21 as double-disc DVD product
offering.

Ramonet’s presentation
focuses on the subject of anarchy and the history of a broader intellectual
movement that dates to middle of the 19th Century, which is covered
in the first segment titled “The Passion for Destruction.”Here the subject is French radical Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon, the “father of anarchism,” and his writings, most notably the 1840
publication of “What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right
and Government” — he declared that property was the equivalent of theft.

The second segment is
title “Land and Freedom” and covers the anarchy movement from 1907 through
World War I and the rise of Communism as embodied in the Soviet Union (through
roughly 1921).

The third segment looks
at the Roaring 20s, the Depression and the period through World War II and is
titled “In Memory of the Vanquished.”Here the examination focuses on the disarray of the anarchist movement
and the rise of totalitarian regimes — most notably European Fascism and
Communism.

As a bonus there is an
extended video session with political activist and scholar, Noam Chomsky.

No Gods, No Masters is presented primarily in French with English
subtitles.